New Programs Take a Different Approach

Unlike the abstinence based “Just Say No” or D.A.R.E., a new
approach to drug education called NOPE
focuses on the problem with opiates. It has proven one of the most difficult
links to break in the chain of addiction.

NOPE, or Narcotics Overdose Prevention and Education, puts together
large assemblies at schools all over the United States. Students watch a multimedia
presentation of parents sobbing at the funerals of their children who died from
drug overdoses.

In addition to its cornerstone video presentation, other
stakeholders such as law enforcement come together at middle schools, high
schools, and colleges to deliver the message that drug abusers die.

And then there’s Shatterproof, which as its name implies aims to keep kids from
finding their lives in pieces.

Two participants in a Shatterproof rappelling event. Credit: Shatterproof

The nonprofit was founded by a successful entrepreneur with
an ambitious business plan and a large bankroll.

Shatterproof hopes to become the American Cancer Society or
American Heart Association of addiction, a massive fundraising machine that
brings all stakeholders to the table under one umbrella.

The program even holds events where participants rappel down
the side of office buildings to help build their self-esteem.

Acknowledging Addiction to Stamp Out Stigma

What Nancy Reagan and her campaign did do was finally admit
the U.S. had a big problem with drugs. While still highly stigmatized, drug
addiction is now something parents around the country are stepping forward to
talk about.

They include parents like Karen H. Perry, executive director
of the Florida-based NOPE Task Force, and Gary Mendell, founder of New York
City-based Shatterproof.

While their approaches to the problem of drug addiction are
a bit different, their stories are similar.

Both lost their sons when the boys were in their early 20s.
They both told Healthline their child’s drug problem began with marijuana. Both
kids had used a smorgasbord of drugs. And both kids had been through
treatment and had stayed clean for several months or longer.

And while some people believe a child’s drug problem is usually
the result of bad parenting, Perry and Mendell stand out as textbook examples
of parents who tried to do all they could to raise their children right and get
them help when needed.

Palm County Sheriff’s Deputy Deborah Wilson speaks to students at a NOPE presentation in Florida. Credit: NOPE

The one word both of them frequently use when they talk
about their approach to teaching children is “science.”

Perry wants children to understand the science of how they
can become addicted.

Mendell also wants to see scientifically proven programs to treat
drug addiction be more widely implemented.

Those First Fateful Tokes on the Golf Course

Perry, and her husband, Richard Sr., didn’t know for many
years that their son had a drug problem. It wasn’t until his sophomore year of
college that he told his parents that cocaine and alcohol had a grip on him. He
reached out for help and his parents immediately got him into rehab.

After a semester-long stay in rehab, he enrolled in a new
college the following year. For about a year after rehab, he reassured his
parents that he was trying hard to stay clean.

“He would look really great. He even made the Dean’s list at
school,” Perry recalled.

But unbeknownst to them, Richie had relapsed.

He would look really great. He even made the Dean’s list at school.

Karen H. Perry, executive director of NOPE

In fact, it turned out Richie had first used illegal drugs
at the age of 15, when he and some friends played a round of golf while smoking
marijuana. Soon Richie began drinking beer.

Perry said four of the five boys who spent the summer
smoking pot on the golf course became addicted to drugs. Two suffered nonfatal
overdoses. Richie died on June 28, 2003.

Richie had been to a hospital emergency room exactly one
month before his death from an overdose. He was “brought back” with three vials
of Narcon (Naloxone), a drug that reverses the depressive effect of opiates. He
had overdosed on a combination of three prescribed medications and heroin.

Richie didn’t want his parents notified about the incident.
Hospital officials cited HIPAA privacy
rules in their decision not to release the information.

While Perry concedes it’s common practice not to inform
parents when an adult child overdoses, it shouldn’t be, she argues. She points to
a clause in HIPAA in which loved ones can be contacted in matters related
to the survival and well being of the patient.

Shatterproof: Using Business Muscle to Beat Back Drugs

Now Perry is lobbying for passage of The Overdose Prevention
Act in Florida, a bill that would require emergency care practitioners to
notify loved ones in the event of nonfatal overdoses.

NOPE, meanwhile, has established 14 chapters in Pennsylvania
and Florida and its message has reached almost 600,000 people nationwide,
including 20,000 in Palm Beach County.

Prone to addiction at a young age, Richie may not have had
much of a chance growing up in Palm Beach, home to notorious painkiller “pill
mills.” The region has some of the highest addiction rates in the country.

Mendell’s son also died from drugs, the way he sees it, but
only after a 13-month run at being sober.

Mendell’s son, who also suffered from mental illness,
decided life wasn’t any better sober. He hanged himself even though he had
managed to free himself from drugs. Mendell said his son used marijuana, and
then progressed to Xanax, and then opiates.

Mendell, a former hotel executive, brings to the fight the
same tenacity as Perry, but he also has the business background of an
accomplished entrepreneur. At one time he owned a large company that managed or
owned nearly four dozen hotels across the United States.

He founded Shatterproof in 2012 after resigning as head of
the hotel business. He used a $5 million contribution for seed money.

Mendell has an ambitious vision to slash in half the number
of people in the U.S. who get addicted to drugs and who die from overdoses.

He also wants to halve the societal cost of addiction,
estimated at more than $416 billion per year.

After ambitious fundraising, public relations, and social
media campaigns fueled by the seed money, Mendell envisions annual revenue of
$300 million by 2030 being funneled toward these goals.

NOPE the Beginning of a Long Road to Sobriety

Do programs like NOPE really have a shot at success where
others have failed?

Holly Vasquez-Cortella is a clinical psychologist at Harbor Village, a detox center
in North Miami. She told Healthline she believes NOPE, with its message
directly connecting drug use to death, likely will have an impact.

Never give up. With a lot of these kids the parent just gives up and says ‘Forget it, I’m done with you.

Holly Vasquez-Cortella, Harbor Village Detox Center

The problem, she said, is that many parents only want to be
like Perry after the fact. She has seen wealthy parents in particular send
their children to the upscale detox center where she works and just expect them
to come out OK regardless.

Vasquez-Cortella says beating back addiction is hard and a
child needs the relentless support of their parents.

“Never give up. With a lot of these kids the parent just
gives up and says ‘Forget it, I’m done with you,’” she said.

Some parents simply don’t think, she said. She has seen parents
wire their children money while they’re in rehab. She stressed those results
can be disastrous and it should seem obvious it’s not a good idea.

She said the new wave of drug-addicted teens, who mix prescription
drugs, marijuana, alcohol, and may even end up injecting heroin, need exactly the
sort of hard wakeup call NOPE provides.